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A wide choice of topics covered from the dawn of history right up to present days . Many of these have a wider relevance than purely within the context of Strathearn . The author's viewpoint often is at variance with the accepted opinions espoused elsewhere eg The Jacobite Uprisings and The Reformation .

St Fillan Historic Scenes of Perthshire

As we approach Loch Earn, we come
to a scene consecrated by its connection with the famous St Fillan, who
evangelised the country here and in the wilds of Breadalbane, and whose arm did
such wonders on the field of Bannockburn. The beautiful hill covered with
verdure to the top, and the green of which contrasts so strikingly with the
brown and the grey of the adjacent heights, is Dunfillan, the hill of St
Fillan. The rock on the top of it was the Saint’s Chair. The spring, now days
at the foot of the it, was the Saint’s Well. It was originally on the top of
the hill; but, disgusted with the Reformation from Popery, which, like
Archbishop Laud, it regarded as rather the “ Deformation “, it removed to the
foot of the hill. St Fillan drank of the waters of this Well, and blessed them.
The consequence was that they were endowed with miraculous healing powers; and,
till even a late date, crowds resorted to them for cures, more especially on
the first day of May and the first day of August. They walked, or, if unable to
walk, they were carried around the well three times from east to west, in the
direction of the sun; and they drank of it and were bathed in it. Then, as now,
rheumatism was a peculiarly obstinate malady; and for a cure, rheumatic
patients had to a ascend the hill, sit in the Saint’s Chair, lie down on their
backs, and be pulled by the legs down to the foot of the hill. The Well was an
infallible remedy for most of the diseases, which flesh, is heir to. It was
especially efficacious for barrenness, for which it was most frequented.When it was at the hilltop, the Saint most
considerately and kindly spared certain patients the labour of climbing to it.
He made a basin, which he placed at the foot of the hill, inn that there was
generally some water even in the driest weather; and those afflicted with sore
eyes had only to wash them three times in the basin, and they were made whole.

The erection of three chapels in
the parish is ascribed to St Fillan. One of the three was at Dundurn, in the
immediate neighbourhood of the pretty modern village of St Fillans; another was
in Strathfillan; and a third was at Killin. The Saint died at Dundurn in 649.
His worshippers about it would fain have buried him there; but the people of
the other two places claimed his remains. They transported them through Glen
Ogle, till they arrived at appoint within two miles of Killin, where the road
branches of to Strathfillan. There the funeral train stopped, and a violent
dispute ensued as to which road to take. Swords were drawn, and blood began to
flow freely, when, low! – Instead of one coffin with which they had started
from Dundurn, two coffins, exactly alike, were seen before them! Each party
seized one of the coffins, and took its own way with it; and hence it is to his
day a question whether Killin or Strathfillan has the relics of the Saint, or
whether he is divided between them.

The Saint’s chapel at
Strathfillan had a wonderful bell, for which the Strathfillanites had a great
regard. It usually lay, untouched and deeply reverenced, on a gravestone in the
churchyard. It possessed preternatural healing virtue. It cured patients by
being placed, in crown fashion, on their heads. The bell had likewise this
marvellous property, or prerogative, or whatever it may be called. It could not
be stolen! If an attempt was made to steal it, it jumped out of the thief’s
hands, and returned home, ringing his shame, and its own triumph!

St Fillan owed a little of his
repute to Robert the Bruce. The MacDougalls of Lorn were perhaps the most
relentless and formidable of Bruce’s enemies. In the Battle of Dalree with the
Lord of Lorn, Bruce made a very narrow escape. The preservation of his life he
ascribed to St Fillan, whose aid he invoked in his extremity, and who therefore
became his favourite saint.”

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